Smile Squad (Confessions of a Wasteland Pony)
The Smile Squad was a raider gang which inhabited a section of wasteland outside of Ponyville a few decades before the events of Fallout: Equestria. They are featured as antagonists in the pilot of the audio drama series Confessions of a Wasteland Pony. History & Ponyville The Smile Squad were a mostly unremarkable raider gang. Like similar groups, they primarily exist to prey on regular travelers and wastelanders, raiding of them of their belongings, killing them, and possibly worse. Their name originally comes from a Ministry of Morale propaganda billboard near Ponyville which simply read: "Smile, Smile, Smile!" Following the theme, the Smile Squad would cut grotesque smiles into the cheeks of their victims as a signature to mark their territory. The current leader of the gang would wear a "crown" which originally started as a buffalo skull. Once a new leader conquers their predecessor, their horn or tail would be affixed to the skull as decoration (depending on if they were a unicorn or earth pony). The only noteworthy member of the gang was Battered Blade, who escapes as a young filly after years of abuse. She did this by driving a makeshift blade of scrap metal through the leg of the leader that preyed on her. The injury weakened him to quickly be killed and overthrown by a new leader. This event would appear as Battered's cutie mark. Battered would continue on her own as a raider in her own right until hitting rock bottom and finding redemption in raising an infant as her own... Emerald Fields. Battered describing the Smile Squad during her own Confession would leave one of the few records of the Smile Squad's existence. She would occasionally kill any Smile Squad members she did recognize, but preferred staying far away from Ponyville rather than return for a grand revenge mission. This wouldn't matter anyway, as the gang was already on the decline and was destroyed by a rival raider clan a decade or so after Battered's departure. Quotes * "Yeah. Thank Luna they don’t exist anymore, but before I was born they controlled pretty much the whole area around Ponyville. They took on the name after being “inspired” by that billboard outside of town. Besides the normal raider shit of stealing, raping and killing, the Smile Squad wanted to set themselves apart by cutting smiles into the cheeks of their victims. It was their “signature”, and also a way to mark their territory with the disfigured bodies of the dead. ...Bastards." - Battered Blade * "The sitting leader of the gang usually gets free reign on the mares too stupid or strung out on Mint-als to care. So, odds are it was whatever piece of work was wearing the crown at that time." - Battered Blade (on who her father might have been) * "That tradition continued on too, if the dead leader were an earth pony, his or her tail would be attached to the helmet instead. When I was a filly, there must have been parts from over two dozen ponies… and one buffalo… on that... crown. A fitting symbol for everything they stood for and celebrated I guess... Being the most physically threatening pony in the group and wearing this unimaginably scary helmet of death, the leader of the Smile Squad basically got anything they wanted." - Battered Blade Behind the Scenes * The Smile Squad are partially inspired by the "Jokerz" gang from Batman Beyond. * Beyond the surface level characteristics and the Smile concept played off of the MOM billboard, the Smile Squad were meant to exemplify a "typical" raider gang... a story that many like Battered Blade could relate to. * The Smile Squad are also referenced in the fifth episode of Terminal Secrets, AWAKE. Their inclusion is mostly as a tongue-in-cheek reference while also reaffirming the idea that they are such a generic raider gang that S.T.E.L.L.A. would have generated a similar group in the Stable 10 simulation by pure coincidence. Category:Confessions of a Wasteland Pony Category:EAST Corp Productions Category:Factions Category:Factions (Confessions of a Wasteland Pony) Category:Raiders